July In Review

Since I do use this as our family journal I thought I'd try to give a quick rundown of what we did the last few weeks. (I made last year's blog into a book...very fun to have.) I have been a real slacker about taking pictures lately, and I'm continuing with that. Last night we went to the county fair and neither Jer or I wanted to carry the camera, so we just didn't take it. Oh well! Here's what we've been up to.

Quite a bit of swimming....

We've had lots of backyard "swim parties" as Luke calls them with pools and slip 'n slides. It's been a good way to beat the heat. I also went along with Luke on his "Fun in the Sun" field trip to the pool, and we had a great time. We even braved the pool with the whole family for Luke's reward when he filled up his good behavior jar. The boys loved swimming with Jer. I spent about half my time with Ian, so I won't be taking the kids alone anytime soon. Seth has some serious bouyancy issues. If he gets off his feet, his bum goes straight up in the air and his head goes under. Luke just finished his last swimming lesson, and he did great. This is the first year he has really liked it and cooperated. Thank goodness.


Lining up for a run at the slip 'n slide...check out that physique.


We hit the 24th of July parade...

Seth was not aggressive about getting the candy...he just went straight to eating it.


We also barbequed and did fireworks with the whole Dattage fam and had lots of fun.



Jer did some fishing in Alaska...



Jer got the chance to go fishing in Alaska as part of a trade at work, so he only had to pay for his flight. He had a great time. We missed him like crazy, but I'm glad he was able to go have fun. He works really hard. That week is a bit of a blur because Jer was gone, I was finishing up my master's class, I had to bottle feed and pump for Ian...craziness. We did spend some quality time at my parent's house including Razor rides and a trip to the Dinosaur Park. I also took the kids up to Jer's hometown for that Famous Preston Night Rodeo. We hit the parade and then Jer's parents and TJ took all the big kids to the rodeo. They loved it, and I'm glad we didn't have to break tradition even though Jer was gone.

We are now enjoying all the fish Jer brought home. We finally invested in a freezer which we have needed forever. (You know you're old and boring when you're excited about a freezer.) The other night we ate salmon cooked with fresh veggies from our garden, and I was feeling so self-reliant!